Dan Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" and "Free Agent Nation", has entered the American office by way of Tokyo. His latest work is Manga-inspired The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, a graphic book of advice for the young careerist ("graphic" = "comic book", not violent and bloody, for non-publishing industry people).
BusinessWeek offers the first Pink peek at Bunko, and its promise is fresh. For a career guide, it's kinda light on the advice.
According to BW's Susan Berfield, there are only six lessons from Bunko:
There is no plan.
Think strengths, not weaknesses.
It's not about you.
Persistence trumps talent.
Make excellent mistakes.
Leave an imprint.
Since I can't confirm or deny Bunko's Zen factor entirely, (it's not out until April and no one sent me a review copy), I don't know if these few words are all we get or if these are only morals to larger stories.
But, I have a feeling Pink is ushering in a trend. And, oh, how the publishing industry loves a trend--think, safe! think, whew, our parent companies know this will make them money!--especially when the last one is no longer a Secret. Get ready for Manga Management Mania!!!!!!!
As for Bunko himself, Berfield writes that he "is an office jockey at Boggs Corp., a bumbling Everyman trapped in a job he loathes, wondering how he got there. Enter a supernatural career adviser, Diana, who emerges from Bunko's chopsticks late one soulless night at the office. She is sarcastic, tough, and wise. All the boys fall for her."
What's of particular interest to me is that Pink is generating a spirituality-tinged community right in the middle of our nation's cubicles (now THAT sounds graphic!). Whereas religion is taboo in schools, and most offices, (making many phobic of spirituality, too) here is a way to assign meaning to the inexplicable (like, why are there unhappy Gen Y "office jockeys"? Why aren't they out snowboarding?), and offer connection to the beyond, without violating the Constitution.
But, is it sinister, or is it sincere? If you take Douglas Atkins's book, The Culting of Brands, to heart, then it's neither. It's just "a whole new church" (I made that up, not Atkins) where communities are made up of people with similar affinities, e.g., PCs evil, Mac book, revelatory.
Berfield reports that Pink and publisher, Riverhead/Penguin's Geoffrey Kloske, will encourage readers to "send in photos of the Johnny Bunkos in their offices, suggestions for the seventh lesson, and narration to accompany drawings."
Bunko sounds like what it is: a way to spend money (on Pink's book) while also helping to shape a world that is largely post-religious-precepts-for-the-meaning-of-everything, where generating one's own mythic tale of the meaning of it all, and then living it accordingly, is more dependable than taking someone else's word for it.
Which might be why Pink is light on specific details in the How To department, and leaves his six lessons open-ended. Such vagaries are reminiscent of Pink's jubilant jag--"Write a mini-saga! Consume experiences! Tell someone a story!" in A Whole New Mind. That bugged me when I read it, because it seemed shallow advice at the time.
I wondered, How was all that jumping and leaping in our hearts and minds possible at any mass, meaningful level after decades of us being underfed any stories of real signifigance? Absent the bible and the Classics, we were bereft of any durable references by which to chart our human journey. That we would suddenly sprout silver tongues and boundless imaginations like Athena from Zeuss's forehead seemed preposterous. But, now I think I was wrong.
Maybe the point is that we don't need those references any more--or not as much, because we're supposed to make them up ourselves. If that's true, then I predict that, if we're paying any attention, we'll be pretty amazed at how much our stories mirror the ancient ones. Not because the heroes' journeys will look the same, but because the heroes' hearts will fill with similar longings.
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